I recommend trying to write a spec for your favorite dialogue system

Every once in a while, for my job, I have to create a gigantic list of features associated with a random game's existing dialogue system. A lot of creative directors will recall the dialogue system of a game they love, then say to the narrative team, "give me that exactly." Then you've gotta figure out what "that" is, exactly. It's usually a lot more complex than you've anticipated! Dialogue systems cover a ton of edge cases emerging from player movement, game state, UI navigation flow, and more. I often find myself dimly remembering what a game did to handle the unique narrative cases at the very end of the plot, then dooming myself to play through the entire game, or to watch multiple different Let's Plays and hope that I can find an example of player pressing every available button. For example, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have, essentially, a font, plus some weird text UX, which are only used in the dialogue of the final boss, in the last 30 minutes of the plot. Pokemon Z-A mixes…